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Inside Scoop: Hot New Foods

Is your head swirling with all the newest “healthy” products you see on market shelves? I just attended the annual Food & Nutrition Conference and Expo in San Diego, California where I was able to check out several hot new items. Here are my top 7 favorite finds.

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Is your head swirling with all the newest “healthy” products you see on market shelves? I just attended the annual Food & Nutrition Conference and Expo in San Diego, California where I was able to check out several hot new items. Here are my top 7 tasty finds.

Who doesn’t love the goodness of pomegranate juice? But many folks find juice in general to be overly sweet with too much sugar. Pom Light contains 75 calories per 8 fluid-ounce serving and 18 grams of sugar. That’s 50 percent fewer calories and almost half as much sugar than the regular version of Pom juice. Yes, light juices exist but Pom cuts down on the sugar by mixing it with water. Sound crazy? Think about this: Many folks who find juice too sweet or they want to cut down on calories mix juice with water at home. And since you’re getting less juice, the cost is cheaper too. Pom Light comes in really fun flavors like dragonfruit, black currant, blackberry, and pomegranate (the dragonfruit was particularly tasty).

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Near East is known for their flavored rice and
couscous mixtures. They just released this delicious quinoa and
brown rice combo. Of course you can find
quinoa in bulk without a flavor packet, but I love the fact that you don’t have to rinse the quinoa and this blend cooks up in about 15 minutes (as opposed to 40 minutes for brown rice). The sodium is also reasonable with 17 percent of your daily dose of sodium in 1 cup, but you can cut down by using less of the flavor pack or taking a ¾ cup portion. This is a quick and easy weeknight alternative when you’re pressed for time.

I’m a self-proclaimed choc-a-holic. So when I found these cute aerated kisses I had to give them a try. The little air pockets give them a wonderful mouth feel and they have 5 fewer calories than traditional kisses. When you are having a chocolate attack, indulging in 5 kisses for 100 calories is a guiltless pleasure.

Greek yogurt can now be found in a drinkable form. With more hunger-fighting protein per ounce than traditional yogurt, this is a perfect snack for when you’re on the go. It comes in honey-vanilla and pomegranate-berry flavors.

KIND just unveiled their newest product: Snack clusters. I tried the Maple Walnut Clusters which are a blend of
oats, millet, brown rice, quinoa and buckwheat. The 1/3 cup serving provides 130 calories, 3.5 grams fat, 3 grams fiber, and 3 grams protein. They’re also gluten-free and taste fabulous. Use on top of yogurt, cottage cheese, pancakes or oatmeal or eat as is for a quick snack.

Frustrated by the steep cost of nut butters? This combination of almond and peanut butter is cheaper than traditional almond butter (the mixed nut butter is about 16 cents cheaper per ounce than almond butter). What’s better is that it only contains 3 ingredients—almonds, peanuts and sea salt. The line makes a variety of flavor-infused peanut butter like chipotle chili, banana, which were all pretty darn tasty.

I admit it, my mom (who's also a dietitian) and I fought over these chips on the flight home from the conference. Made from a combination of brown rice and almonds, these chips are crunchy and they taste great. Of course, they’re still chip,s so portion control is important. A serving of 15 chips contains 130 calories.